Or to put it another way: what books do you buy because you feel you should, and they live on your shelf while you read other things?
Every day on BookBub, or in any bookstore I walk into, there are catchwords and phrases and awards prestige that catches my eye, and I’ll buy the “glorious tour de force” -New Yorker, or the Booker Prize Finalist, or “the book I wish I’d written” -Respected Author.
Then I mostly read thrillers.
I think it’s ok to buy books aspirationally, and it doesn’t hurt the author for their work to sit on my shelf or in my Kindle library, but I was made aware of this recently and now I’m trying to be more mindful of how soon I intend to read a book when I buy it, and what really interests me apart from wanting to be a person who has read this book.
by OperationTheGame
4 Comments
I did used to aspirationally buy, but like you started looking at the expense and the pile of books on my shelves, and woke up. Started using the library a lot more, for starters. Rather than impulse buy I look to see if the library has it, and that just slows the whole process down.
Now, I buy books I know (or at least think) I’m going to want to keep around as references. (I buy more non-fiction books than fiction books; I very seldom buy fiction books anymore.) Others I might buy if I really want to read them and either can’t get them from any library source, physical or electronic, or if I think I want to spend more time on them than a library loan might allow.
It’s okay to have both. Some books are like art or decor or are too beautiful to be read. Then there are the books I read within three days. It’s just whatever makes you happy really.
There isn’t really a difference for me, but there are books I can read any time and books I have to be in the right frame of mind for. When I buy a book by an author I don’t know, it’s because in addition to it being critically acclaimed or recommended by an author I love, I’ve also picked it up in the shop and read a few pages. Then I can tell if it’s my kind of book. On the other hand, there are some authors where I buy everything they publish because I know I’ll enjoy it
I was once subscribed to illumicrate. I thought the books looked beautiful, and I liked having them signed by the author. Then I realised I wasn’t actually enjoying the books from them (some were OK). So I unsubscribed. Now I have a bunch of these books looking absolutely beautiful on my shelves, but the majority of them are unread 😆